WAR IN UKRAINE: July 4, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 496
In Sumy, the number of people killed as a result of a drone attack on a residential building on July 3 increased to three people, 21 people were injured, Mayor Lysenko reported. Four people are in hospitals. July 4 has been declared a day of mourning in Sumy - Suspilne
The European Union is considering a proposal for the Russian Agricultural Bank to set up a subsidiary to reconnect to the global financial network as a sop to Moscow, the Financial Times said on Monday. With the bank under sanctions, the move aims to safeguard the Black Sea grain deal that allows Ukraine to export food to global markets. The BSGI was brokered by the UN Secretary General and signed by Ukraine, Russia, the UN and Turkey. The SG said shortly afterwards that it was one of the most important deals he’s ever negotiated. However, Russia has been tinkering with the deal by slowing inspections of ships in Istanbul. Responding to reports of possible EU concessions to Russia, a senior Ukrainian official said: “making concessions to a blackmailer means encouraging him to continue blackmailing.”
The leaders of China, Russia and India on Tuesday will meet at a virtual summit in India. For President Vladimir Putin, it will be a chance to speak on an international stage for the first time since a rebellion by Wagner mercenary forces - NYT
The founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, shared an audio message Monday — his first since calling off his mutiny aimed at the leaders atop Russia’s Ministry of Defense. In the recording, which was published on a Telegram channel closely associated with Wagner, Prigozhin said his fighters will win the “next victories” in the war in Ukraine. He also assessed his march on Moscow as successful. “Our ‘March of Justice’ was aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society,” Prigozhin said. “I think that we have succeeded in much of this.” He did not specify where he is now or discuss Wagner’s plans. It was not immediately apparent when Prigozhin’s latest message was recorded. Other channels linked to Wagner and Prigozhin did not broadcast the message - Washington Post
As the war in Ukraine unfolded last year, Russia’s best digital spies turned to new tools to fight an enemy on another front: those inside its own borders who opposed the war. To aid an internal crackdown, Russian authorities had amassed an arsenal of technologies to track the online lives of citizens. After it invaded Ukraine, its demand grew for more surveillance tools. That helped stoke a cottage industry of tech contractors, which built products that have become a powerful — and novel — means of digital surveillance. The technologies have given the police and Russia’s Federal Security Service, better known as the F.S.B., access to a buffet of snooping capabilities focused on the day-to-day use of phones and websites. The tools offer ways to track certain kinds of activity on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal, monitor the locations of phones, identify anonymous social media users and break into people’s accounts, according to documents from Russian surveillance providers obtained by The New York Times, as well as security experts, digital activists and a person involved with the country’s digital surveillance operations.
The Russian social media site VKontakte has about 100 groups containing advertisements for buying, selling, and renting real estate in occupied Mariupol. In one of the largest, “Real Estate in Mariupol and Pryazovia,” messages from people seeking to buy houses or apartments began appearing in early May 2022, when heavy combat was still going on in the city. The people looking for real estate in Mariupol come from all over Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, and Nizhny Novgorod. Many of them are open to buying houses and buildings “in any condition” and plan to repair whatever shelling damage they find. Some buyers told Bumaga that they see Mariupol as part of Russia and don’t consider purchasing real estate in an occupied city to be a risky decision. At the same time, the majority of people who spoke to the outlet said they’ve never been to Mariupol - Meduza
And in other news you can use…
The U.S. recommended Americans reconsider traveling to China because of arbitrary law enforcement and exit bans and the risk of wrongful detentions.
No specific cases were cited, but the advisory came after a 78-year-old U.S. citizen was sentenced to life in prison on spying charges in May. It also followed the passage last week of a sweeping Foreign Relations Law that threatens countermeasures against those seen as harming China’s interests.
China also recently passed a broadly written counterespionage law that has sent a chill through the foreign business community, with offices being raided, as well as a law to sanction foreign critics.
“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government arbitrarily enforces local laws, including issuing exit bans on U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries, without fair and transparent process under the law,” the U.S. advisory said.
“U.S. citizens traveling or residing in the PRC may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime,” it warned - AP